Crooked Teeth
by SaltWaterRain
Summary: Sakura, a young girl, and Kakashi, her teacher have fallen in love. But not all love stories have "happily ever after" endings. After Kakashi is charged with pedophilia, the couple elope and find them selves leading difficult lives.


This story is part of **Challenge Accepted!**. To find out more about **Challenge Accepted! **or to read other **Challenge Accepted! **stories please see my profile. **

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**Crooked Teeth**

**Chapter 1**

_Sakura looked up at Kakashi, her emerald eyes reassuring. "It's fine." She stated confidently, tightening her grip on the silver haired man's hand._

"_No, it's not." He grumbled, turning his partially covered face away from the girl._

"_So long as I'm with you we could live in a cardboard box for all I care." She murmured softly, tugging on his shirt, forcing him to turn his head back and meet her gaze._

"_That's sweet." He commented lightly, his visible eye turning upward, evidence of a smile._

"_It's true." She growled in annoyance._

_Now it was Kakashi's turn to squeeze her hand comfortingly. "I know that." He glanced back up at the small house they were considering. It was a tiny one story garagless grey house. The paint was peeling and one of the windows was broken. A couple of shingles were missing from the roof and the white front door was crooked on it's hinges. The yard was small and in disrepair, with weeds growing through the cracks in the pathway. All in all, the house was better than most of the others around in the shabby neighborhood. "I guess we could fix it up a bit."_

"_Of course." Sakura agreed._

"_We'll move out as soon as we can." He promised. "This neighborhood is terrible."_

"_That's fine." The pink haired girl agreed once more. "We can deal with this."_

The familiar sound of police sirens woke Kakashi from his restless slumber. He quickly sat up in bed and looked around. Sakura was sitting on the edge of their bed, looking out the window, peeking through the blinds onto the street below. He glanced at the luminescent red numbers on the alarm clock. It read 3:07am, it wouldn't ring for a couple hours still. Kakashi climbed over the bed and sat down next to Sakura.

"Good morning." He whispered, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek.

She mumbled her good morning, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"What's going on this time?" He inquired halfheartedly.

"I don't know yet, they just got here." She began to play with the fringe on his T-shirt, not really interested in what was going on outside their house.

Kakashi looked down at her worriedly. "How long have you been awake?"

She avoided his gaze by peering through the blinds at the cops on the street. "Not long."

"Sakura…" Kakashi started, hearing the falseness in her words.

At the softness in his voice Sakura instantly felt a stab of guilt. She turned back to him, matching his frown with one of her own. "I'm-"

"No, Sakura." He cut her off. "I'm sorry." The guilt in his expression was heart breaking. He pulled the girl onto his lap and held her. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

This time it was the loud buzzing of the alarm clock that woke Kakashi up. He hit the snooze button and rolled over in bed, sighing in relief when he saw that Sakura was just waking up as well. She yawned and stretched before turning to him.

"Good morning." She greeted, a heart warming smile spreading across her face.

Kakashi put an arm around her and pulled her close, burying his face in her pink hair. "Good morning. Wanna get some breakfast on the road?" His voice was muffled and tickled her neck, causing a stream of giggles to bubble up from her throat.

"Sure." She agreed, pulling free from his arms and getting out of bed. "Just let me shower first. She walked over to the light switch and turned on the overhead light before heading into the bathroom.

"Ugh, it burns!" Kakashi grumbled, covering his face with a pillow.

Sakura grinned with malicious humor. "Crybaby!" She sung out before closing the bathroom door.

Kakashi chuckled, throwing the pillow aside as he climbed out of bed. He walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. After groggily plopping himself on the couch he clicked the remote, turning on their fuzzy old TV. He shifted channels until he came to the morning news. He set down the remote and picked up his book from the coffee table. Kakashi pulled out his bookmark and tossed it on the table as he began to read, only half listening to the news.

Not long had gone by when Sakura stepped out into the living room. "Kakashi." She stated, the fearful tone in her voice catching his attention immediately.

He quickly looked up from his book and turned his concentration on the girl. She stood a few feet from the couch, with her pink hair up in a towel and a fuzzy robe tied around her. She was watching TV a look of pure horror decorating her face. Thinking the worst, Kakashi faced the TV, listening hard to the newscast.

"**Sakura Haruno, age 16, went missing about three months ago." **An unseen voice proclaimed as the screen flickered to reveal a picture of Sakura. **"She has pink hair, green eyes, and is approximately five foot two." **The screen changed to show a picture of Kakashi. **"The suspect, Kakashi Hatake, is her former teacher and is believed to have had engaged in pedophilic actions on the missing girl. He has shaggy grey hair and one of his eyes is red with a scar reaching across it. He is always seen with a mask covering the lower half of his face." **The screen moved again to two people sitting in chairs across from each other. **"Reporter Max Smith talks to detective Burt Glenn to get the whole story."**

One of the men, Max Smith, began the interview. **"Thank you for being here today Detective Glenn."**

"**It's an honor and a privilege." **The other man replied.

**Can you start off by telling us about why the story of this abduction hasn't reached the ears of our citizens until now?"** The reporter asked.

The detective frowned. **"Our investigation teams were originally misinformed about the direction the kidnapper went."**

"**Why did that make such a big difference?" **Inquired Smith.

"**Our men spent three months looking in the wrong spot. But now my force has contacted this states law enforcement group. They are currently searching for the out of state girl as if she was one of their own citizens." **Glenn announced professionally.

The reporter nodded in understanding. **"What clued you in that Hatake might have the girl here?"**

"**We got a call." **The detective said simply. **"Someone was watching the news in the state we were searching in and called in saying that they saw the girl last time they were here."**

"**What kinds of measures are you taking to ensure that the girl will be returned home safely?" **Asked the reporter.

"**The local department has the best of their men out looking for her. The scum that stole that innocent girl from her family will not get away from us." **Smith promised.

Both men turned to face the screen as the unseen voice began again. **"So, there you have it folks. Keep your eyes peeled for either of the people shown and call in any of your sightings. Pay attention so we can save a helpless teen and get a dangerous man off the streets. We'll be back with news on the election after this commercial break."**

Kakashi shut the TV off as the news switched to an add. He looked up at Sakura to see tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Standing up from the couch he walked over to the girl and embraced her.

"They found us. It's over." She choked out, burying her face in his chest.

"Shhh… No its not." Kakashi whispered, stroking her hair in a futile attempt to comfort the devastated girl. He bit his lip in frustration when he felt the sobs racking her body. "Sakura…" He pulled away from her and gently grabbed her chin, bending down to look into her eyes. "We've hidden ourselves well. They wont find us."

"You don't know that for sure!" She shook her head, freeing her chin from his light grasp.

"Sakura. Listen to me. I promised I would never leave you. And that promise still holds. They will never take me away from you."

"But, the news-" She was cut off.

"This is a big city. We just have to lay low for a while." He decided.

"We're already laying low-" He cut her off once again.

"We can do more." He insisted. "We can get new jobs. Go by different names for awhile. We can blend in." He took her in his arms again. "It might be hard, but we can do it."

Sakura blinked and looked up at Kakashi, a small smile gracing her lips. "We can deal with this."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


End file.
